Neuropsychological effects of anxiety without depression on facial affect perception

Sixty right-handed men, half classified as anxious without depressive symptoms, the other half as nonanxious, participated in a tachistoscopic study of the influence of anxiety without depression on hemispheric processing of Ekman and Friesen's (1976) happy, angry, and neutral emotional faces. Results were counter to hypotheses, where anxious subjects' reaction times to affective valences were slower than nonanxious subjects. Additionally, anxious subjects failed to demonstrate a negative affective bias for neutral stimuli. Results are discussed in terms of arousal theory, where anxious subjects may be considered overaroused for the tachistoscopic task, thereby exhibiting slower reaction times to affective stimuli. More specific neuropsychological hypotheses for anxious individuals without depression versus nonanxious individuals in terms of concurrent anterior dysfunction and posterior hyperarousal are discussed.